Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
There are various well-developed and well-defined cellular communications technologies in telecommunications that enable wireless communications using mobile terminals, or user equipment (UE). For example, the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is a well-defined and commonly used communications system, which uses time division multiple access (TDMA) technology, which is a multiplex access scheme for digital radio, to send voice, video, data, and signaling information (such as a dialed telephone number) between mobile phones and cell sites. The CDMA2000 is a hybrid mobile communications 2.5G/3G (generation) technology standard that uses code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. The UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is a 3G mobile communications system, which provides an enhanced range of multimedia services over the GSM system. The Long-Term Evolution (LTE), as well as its derivatives such as LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro, is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals. In developing communication technologies, UE power consumption is always an important aspect for investigation.
In traditional communication systems, downlink control signal is used for the network side to transmit important message to the UE side including indication of the reception of downlink data. The UE needs to receive the downlink control signal as well as the downlink data for the UE. Therefore, if the downlink control signal is not well scheduled, the UE may need to turn on its radio frequency transceiver to keep monitoring the downlink control signal and the possible downlink data. It will consume significant power consumption for the UE to keep turning on its radio frequency transceiver or keep receiving downlink signaling. If there is no downlink data is scheduled during the on duration of the UE's radio frequency transceiver, the UE power would be wasted and the power management would be inefficient.
Accordingly, it is important for the UE to properly determine receiving duration of its radio frequency transceiver to receive downlink signaling when necessary. Therefore, in developing future communication system, it is needed to provide methodologies for the UE to receive downlink signaling in an efficient way and reduce power consumption for power saving.